(A report from the Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Morningside University and St. Luke’s College – UnityPoint Health are starting off 2026 with efforts to begin melding the campuses together, having announced in summer 2025 that St. Luke’s will eventually become a Morningside location. Jackie Barber, dean of the Nylen School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Morningside, and Morningside Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Chris Spicer said the first step in the acquisition process is complete, with hopes for full combination after the year ends.

The private colleges, both located in Sioux City, have worked together for a long time and have offered “joint two-plus-two programs” since 2019, Spicer said. This acquisition is an opportunity to expand that partnership and others, he said. Barber said the idea for the acquisition was born from trying to think of ways to utilize both institutions’ strengths, as well as strengths from UnityPoint Health, to bolster “academic delivery of these health care programs” and the health care workforce pipeline.

While the initial announcement of the impending acquisition came out in July, Spicer said both institutions had been talking about it since the previous fall. The first phase of the process went “fairly smoothly,” he said, with the Higher Learning Commission approving the acquisition in November after September visits to both campuses. The effective date of the acquisition was Dec. 31 and with that date’s passage, Spicer said Morningside has submitted an official notification of change in ownership to the U.S. Department of Education. Now in the second phase, university officials are waiting for that approval and other regulatory steps while beginning the transition process for St. Luke’s students, faculty and staff.

While the current focus is on ensuring the continued delivery of quality higher education at both institutions, Barber said an overarching goal of the combination is to strengthen pathways for upskilling and continuing education needed for the health care workforce. Morningside will not keep St. Luke’s RN-BSN degree completion program, as it has its own version of the same degree, and current students will finish out the program while new students will enroll in Morningside’s degree.